Lord Acton Quotes

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.

Absolute power corrupts absolutely

Although we had been warned by some of the greatest political thinkers of the nineteenth century, by Tocqueville and Lord Acton, that socialism means slavery, we have steadily moved in the direction of socialism.

Learn as much by writing as by reading.

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

When you perceive a truth, look for the balancing truth.

Judge talent at its best but character at its worst.

I believe in political equality. But there are two opposite reasons for being a democrat. You may think all men so good that they deserve a share in the government of the commonwealth, and so wise that the commonwealth needs their advice. That is, in my opinion, the false, romantic doctrine of democracy. On the other hand, you may believe fallen men to be so wicked that not one of them can be trusted with any irresponsible power over his fellows. That I believe to be the true ground of democracy. I do not believe that God created an egalitarian world. I believe the authority of parent over child, husband over wife, learned over simple to have been as much a part of the original plan as the authority of man over beast. I believe that if we had not fallen...patriarchal monarchy would be the sole lawful government. But since we have learned sin, we have found, as Lord Acton says, that 'all power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.' The only remedy has been to take away the powers and substitute a legal fiction of equality. The authority of father and husband has been rightly abolished on the legal plane, not because this authority is in itself bad (on the contrary, it is, I hold, divine in origin), but because fathers and husbands are bad. Theocracy has been rightly abolished not because it is bad that learned priests should govern ignorant laymen, but because priests are wicked men like the rest of us. Even the authority of man over beast has had to be interfered with because it is constantly abused.

The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority, or rather of that party, not always the majority, that succeeds, by force or fraud, in carrying elections.

The issue which has swept down the centuries and which will have to be fought sooner or later is the people versus the banks.

on the famous Lord Acton line: “Power kills, and absolute power kills absolutely.

Be not content with the best book; seek sidelights from the others; have no favourites.

Throughout history, government has proved to be the chief instrument for thwarting man’s liberty. Government represents power in the hands of some men to control and regulate the lives of other men. And power, as Lord Acton said, corrupts men. “Absolute power,” he added, “corrupts absolutely.

Lord Acton’s famous phrase: ‘power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.

I see the liberty of the individual not only as a great moral good in itself (or, with Lord Acton, as the highest political good), but also as the necessary condition for the flowering of all the other goods that mankind cherishes: moral virtue, civilization, the arts and sciences, economic prosperity.

It is bad to be oppressed by a minority, but it is worse to be oppressed by a majority. For there is a reserve of latent power in the masses which, if it is called into play, the minority can seldom resist. But from the absolute will of an entire people there is no appeal, no redemption, no refuge but treason.

...power largely consists in the ability to make others inhabit your story of their reality, even if you have to kill a lot of them to make that happen. In this raw sense, power has always been very much the same everywhere; what varies is primarily the quality of the reality it seeks to create: is it based more on truth than in falsehood, which is to say, is it more or less abusive to its subjects? The answer is often a function of how broadly or narrowly the power is based: is it centered in one person, or is it spread out among many different centers that excercise checks on one another? And are its subjects merely subjects or are they also citizens? In principle, narrowly based power is easier to abuse, while more broadly based power requires a truer story at its core and is more likely to protect more of its subjects from abuse. This rule was famously articulated by the British historian Lord Acton in his formula "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutley

We're taught Lord Acton's axiom: all power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. I believed that when I started these books, but I don't believe it's always true any more. Power doesn't always corrupt. Power can cleanse. What I believe is always true about power is that power always reveals.

If women were as libidinous as men, we’re told, society itself would collapse. Lord Acton was only repeating what everyone knew in 1875 when he declared, “The majority of women, happily for them and for society, are not very much troubled with sexual feeling of any kind.” And yet, despite repeated assurances that women aren’t particularly sexual creatures, in cultures around the world men have gone to extraordinary lengths to control female libido: female genital mutilation, head-to-toe chadors, medieval witch burnings, chastity belts, suffocating corsets, muttered insults about “insatiable” whores, pathologizing, paternalistic medical diagnoses of nymphomania or hysteria, the debilitating scorn heaped on any female who chooses to be generous with her sexuality…all parts of a worldwide campaign to keep the supposedly low-key female libido under control. Why the electrified high-security razor-wire fence to contain a kitty-cat?

We have progressively abandoned that freedom in economic affairs without which personal and political freedom has never existed in the past. Although we had been warned by some of the greatest political thinkers of the nineteenth century, by Tocqueville and Lord Acton, that socialism means slavery, we have steadily moved in the direction of socialism.

Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

As Lord Acton said, great men are mostly bad men.

The fact is that libertarianism is not and does not pretend to be a complete moral or aesthetic theory; it is only a political theory, that is, the important subset of moral theory that deals with the proper role of violence in social life. Political theory deals with what is proper or improper for government to do, and government is distinguished from every other group in society as being the institution of organized violence. Libertarianism holds that the only proper role of violence is to defend person and property against violence, that any use of violence that goes beyond such just defense is itself aggressive, unjust, and criminal. Libertarianism, therefore, is a theory which states that everyone should be free of violent invasion, should be free to do as he sees fit, except invade the person or property of another. What a person does with his or her life is vital and important, but is simply irrelevant to libertarianism. It should not be surprising, therefore, that there are libertarians who are indeed hedonists and devotees of alternative lifestyles, and that there are also libertarians who are firm adherents of "bourgeois" conventional or religious morality. There are libertarian libertines and there are libertarians who cleave firmly to the disciplines of natural or religious law. There are other libertarians who have no moral theory at all apart from the imperative of non-violation of rights. That is because libertarianism per se has no general or personal moral theory. Libertarianism does not offer a way of life; it offers liberty, so that each person is free to adopt and act upon his own values and moral principles. Libertarians agree with Lord Acton that "liberty is the highest political end" — not necessarily the highest end on everyone's personal scale of values.

I can remember when believing in conspiracies wasn’t cool. Now, in the second decade of the twenty-first century, more people are starting to sense that things may not be as they appear to be. The truth in Lord Acton’s classic axiom that “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely” becomes more self-evident every day. Politicians from the only two parties we have to choose from break promises, are unresponsive to the will of the people, and opt for war, austerity measures, and state control over and over again. Gary Allen, author of the book None Dare Call It Conspiracy, defined things perfectly when he wrote, “It must be remembered that the first job of any conspiracy, whether it be in politics, crime or within a business office, is to convince everyone else that no conspiracy exists.

algunos de los mayores pensadores políticos del siglo XIX,como De Tocqueville y Lord Acton, nos advirtieron que socialismo significa esclavitud, hemos marchado constantemente en la dirección del socialismo.

Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Of all conceivable things that which is most alien to their spirit is to sacrifice any distinct interest or particular right to the requirements of some vague abstraction.

If the distribution of power among the several parts of the State is the most efficient restraint on monarchy, the distribution of power among several States is the best check on democracy..

In other words, ideas, when implemented, turn into precedents with unpredictable and potentially disturbing consequences. As the British historian and politician Lord Acton described the effect that our Revolutionary War had on our French allies, “What the French took from the Americans was their theory of revolution, not their theory of government—their cutting, not their sewing.

It is bad to be oppressed by a minority, but it is worse to be oppressed by a majority. For there is a reserve of latent power in the masses which, if it is called into play, the minority can seldom resist.

All that Socrates could effect by way of protest against the tyranny of the reformed democracy was to die for his convictions. The Stoics could only advise the wise man to hold aloof from politics, keeping the unwritten law in his heart. But when Christ said: “Render unto Cæsar the things that are Cæsar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s,” those words, spoken on His last visit to the Temple, three days before His death, gave to the civil power, under the protection of conscience, a sacredness it had never enjoyed, and bounds it had never acknowledged; and they were the repudiation of absolutism and the inauguration of freedom. For our Lord not only delivered the precept, but created the force to execute it. To maintain the necessary immunity in one supreme sphere, to reduce all political authority within defined limits, ceased to be an aspiration of patient reasoners, and was made the perpetual charge and care of the most energetic institution and the most universal association in the world. The new law, the new spirit, the new authority, gave to liberty a meaning and a value it had not possessed in the philosophy or in the constitution of Greece or Rome before the knowledge of the truth that makes us free.

Maria managed to avoid Oliver for most of St. Valentine’s Day. It wasn’t difficult-apparently he spent half of it sleeping off his wild night. Not that she cared one bit. She’d learned her lesson with him. Truly she had. Not even the beautiful bouquet of irises he’d sent up to her room midafternoon changed that. Now that she was dressing for tonight’s ball, she was rather proud of herself for having only thought of him half a dozen times. Per hour, her conscience added. “There, that’s the last one,” Betty said as she tucked another ostrich feather into Maria’s elaborate coiffure. According to Celia, the new fashion this year involved a multitude of feathers drooping from one’s head in languid repose. Maria hoped hers didn’t decide to find their repose on the floor. Betty seemed to have used a magical incantation to keep them in place, and Maria wasn’t at all sure they would stay put. “You look lovely, miss,” Betty added. “If I do,” Maria said, “it’s only because of your efforts, Betty.” Betty ducked her head to hide her blush. “Thank you, miss.” It was amazing how different the servant had been ever since Maria had taken Oliver’s advice to heart, letting the girl fuss over her and tidy her room and do myriad things that Maria would have been perfectly happy to do for herself. But he’d proved to be right-Betty practically glowed with pride. Maria wished she’d known sooner how to treat them all, but honestly, how could she have guessed that these mad English would enjoy being in service? It boggled her democratic American mind. Casting an admiring glance down Maria’s gown of ivory satin, Betty said, “I daresay his lordship will swallow his tongue when he sees you tonight.” “If he does, I hope he chokes on it,” Maria muttered. With a sly glance, Betty fluffed out the bouffant drapery of white tulle that crossed Maria’s bust and was fastened in the center with an ornament of gold mosaic. “John says the master didn’t touch a one of those tarts at the brothel last night. He says that his lordship refused every female that the owner of the place brought before him.” “I somehow doubt that.” Paying her no heed, Betty continued her campaign to salvage her master’s dubious honor. “Then Lord Stoneville went to the opera house and left without a single dancer on his arm. John says he never done that before.” Maria rolled her eyes, though a part of her desperately wanted to believe it was true-a tiny, silly part of her that she would have to slap senseless. Betty polished the ornament with the edge of her sleeve. “John says he drank himself into a stupor, then came home without so much as kissing a single lady. John says-“ “John is inventing stories to excuse his master’s actions.” “Oh no, miss! John would never lie. And I can promise you that the master has never come home so early before, and certainly not without…that is, at the house in Acton he was wont to bring a tart or two home to…well, you know.” “Help him choke on his tongue?” Maria snapped as she picked up her fan. Betty laughed. “Now that would be a sight, wouldn’t it? Two ladies trying to shove his tongue down his throat.” “I’d pay them well to do it.

The greatest writers of the Whig party, Burke and Macaulay, constantly represented the statesmen of the Revolution as the legitimate ancestors of modern liberty. It is humiliating to trace a political lineage to Algernon Sidney, who was the paid agent of the French king; to Lord Russell, who opposed religious toleration at least as much as absolute monarchy; to Shaftesbury, who dipped his hands in the innocent blood shed by the perjury of Titus Oates; to Halifax, who insisted that the plot must be supported even if untrue; to Marlborough, who sent his comrades to perish on an expedition which he had betrayed to the French; to Locke, whose notion of liberty involves nothing more spiritual than the security of property, and is consistent with slavery and persecution; or even to Addison, who conceived that the right of voting taxes belonged to no country but his own. Defoe affirms that from the time of Charles II. to that of George I. he never knew a politician who truly held the faith of either party; and the perversity of the statesmen who led the assault against the later Stuarts threw back the cause of progress for a century.

Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority; still more when you superadd the tendency of the certainty of corruption by authority. —Lord Acton

The character of Superman is a rebuttal of Lord Acton's famous dictum: he has absolute power, but it does not corrupt him. Rather, his power grants him freedom from fear. This freedom allows him to be a superman, and to realize his potential by helping others.

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely,” Lord Acton said way back in 1887.

De Tocqueville and Lord Acton speak with one voice on this subject. “Democracy and socialism,” De Tocqueville wrote, “have nothing in common but one word, equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude.”30 And Acton joined him in believing that “the deepest cause which made the French revolution so disastrous to liberty was its theory of equality”31 and that “the finest opportunity ever given to the world was thrown away, because the passion for equality made vain the hope for freedom.”32

De Tocqueville and Lord Acton speak with one voice on this subject. “Democracy and socialism,” De Tocqueville wrote, “have nothing in common but one word, equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude.

Truth is the only merit that gives dignity and worth to history.

Absolute power corrupts absolutely.” —LORD ACTON

Of course not all dissenters openly proclaimed their disloyalty to Rome. There were secret heretics who had to be sought out diligently. The method devised was the Inquisition, in the opinion of Egyptian author Rollo Ahmed, "the most pitiless and ferocious institution the world has ever known" in its destruction of lives, property, morals, and human rights. Lord Acton, a Catholic, called the Inquisition "murderous" and declared that the popes "were not only murderers in the great style, but they made murder a legal basis of the Christian Church and the condition of salvation.

Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely

Horace Greeley pursues temperance to extravagance." Lord Acton

It is an almost precise inversion of Lord Acton’s observation: the more power we have over our children, the more we are willing to sacrifice for them. Love transfigures power. Absolute love transfigures absolute power. And power transfigured by love is the power that made and saves the world.

O outro evidente sinal da grandeza de Marco Aurélio era o facto de ele próprio ser a refutação em pessoa do famoso ditado de Lord Acton: “o poder tende a corromper e o poder absoluto corrompe absolutamente”. Marco Aurélio detinha um poder absoluto, mas nunca o usou para fins egoístas, malévolos, despóticos ou corruptos.

CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE: YOU IN? Peter and the other apostles replied: “We must obey God rather than human beings!” Acts 5:29 The English historian Lord Acton wrote, “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority: still more when you superadd the tendency or the certainty of corruption by authority.” People can’t seem to help themselves. When they get a taste of power, they often abuse it and lord it over everyone else. That includes legislators, chief executives, and even judges (and justices of the Supreme Court). Laws, made under the guise of authority, are sometimes bad laws that oppress the innocent. If a law is unjust and opposed to God’s laws, we need to oppose it. Throughout our history—most famously with the abolitionist movement—Americans have done just that. Like the apostles, we must obey God’s eternal moral law rather than the human-made law of the moment. Our Founding Fathers were suspicious of government power—especially the power of the federal government—because they too understood that power corrupts. We should always view government power suspiciously and reject it when it oversteps its bounds. SWEET FREEDOM IN Action Today, pledge to support candidates for office who actually believe in limited government as set forth in our Constitution and who give paramountcy to God’s eternal law.

I found bossing other people about such a delightful novelty that I had to remind myself of Lord Acton's famous axiom about its tendency to corrupt.

Lord Acton’s famous observation that “power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely” has long been misunderstood. Acton was not arguing that power causes powerful leaders to become corrupt (though he probably believed that, too). Rather, he was noting that historians tend to forgive the powerful for transgressions they would never condone by the weak.

Lord Acton stated this elegantly: “History must be our deliverer not only from the undue influence of other times, but from the undue influence of our own, from the tyranny of environment and the pressure of the air we breathe. It requires

Whenever the word power is mentioned, somebody sooner or later will refer to the classical statement of Lord Acton and cite it as follows: “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” In fact the correct quotation is: “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” We can’t even read Acton’s statement accurately, our minds are so confused by our conditioning.

If you will bear in mind that Socrates, the best of the pagans, knew of no higher criterion for men, of no better guide of conduct, than the laws of each country; that Plato, whose sublime doctrine was so near an anticipation of Christianity that celebrated theologians wished his works to be forbidden, lest men should be content with them, and indifferent to any higher dogma —​​​​​​​to whom was granted that prophetic vision of the Just Man, accused, condemned and scourged, and dying on a Cross —​​​​​​​ nevertheless employed the most splendid intellect ever bestowed on man to advocate the abolition of the family and the exposure of infants; that Aristotle, the ablest moralist of antiquity, saw no harm in making raids upon a neighbouring people, for the sake of reducing them to slavery —​​​​​​​ still more, if you will consider that, among the moderns, men of genius equal to these have held political doctrines not less criminal or absurd —​​​​​​​it will be apparent to you how stubborn a phalanx of error blocks the paths of truth

GLAAD's original mission was certainly admirable. Gays and lesbians, who had long endured the cold shoulder of a disapproving society, finally had an organization that would speak out on their behalf and fight injustice. But, like so many well-meaning organizations, GLAAD fell victim to the process described by Lord Acton. Seemingly overnight, it went from character building to character assassination. Fattened up with newfound power, it chose not to debate those with differing opinions but to try to destroy them. For political scientists, this is not a revelation. But for those of us who have emotional capital invested in the ideal of progressive thought and action, the attack on Dr. Laura Schlessinger should be a serious wake-up call.

There is no error so monstrous that it fails to find defenders among the ablest of men.

Millet mi Devleti, Devlet mi Milleti yaratır? Devlet Birliği Millet mi devleti meydana getirir, yoksa millet, devletten sonra mı teşekkül eder? Yâni öncelik hangisinindir? İşte size yumurta mı tavuktan, tavuk mu yumurtadan çıkar benzeri bir mesele. Büyük sömürge imparatorlukları, özellikle İngilizler; devletin, milletten sonra düşünülemeyeceğini öne sürmüşlerdir. Millî toplulukların ancak devlet gücü ile meydana geleceğini kabul ettirmenin gayelerinden birisi, sömürülen'Devletsiz' kitlelerin millet sayılamayacağı, böylelikle idare edilmelerine devam olunabileceği sonucu idi. Bu görüşün en kesin bir ölçüye bağlanmış şekline Lord Acton isimli İngiliz sömürgecisinde rastlıyoruz: 'Devlet, zamanla millî bir topluluk yaratabilir, ama millî bir topluluğun bir devlet haline gelmesi, çağdaş medeniyetin vasfına aykırıdır.' Rudolf Rocker, şöyle bir cümle ekliyor: 'Milliyet devletin sebebi değil sonucudur. Devlet milleti yaratır, millet devleti değil.' Ortega Y. Gasset, Fransız ve İspanyol milletlerinin devlet gücü ile meydana çıktığını söyler: 'Fransa ve İspanya'nın devlet olarak meydana gelmeden önce Fransız ve İspanyol ruhunun derinliklerinde birer birim olarak var olduğunu kabul eden tarihçiler yanılmışlardır. Sanki Fransa ve İspanya'dan önce Fransızlar ya da İspanyollar varmış gibi. Sanki Fransız ve İspanyollar iki bin yıllık bir gayret sonunda binbir güçlükle yaratılmamışlardır. Bir toprak üstünde dil birliğine sahip her toplum çok defa daha önceki bir siyasi birleşmenin sonucudur.' Tanınmış Fransız iktisatçısı Proudhon, aslında küçümsememek için, milleti bir takım müşterek kanunların veya siyasi müesseselerin yahut merkezi kuvvet tarafından yapılmakta olan zorlama ve baskının neticesine bağlar. Nihayet Massimo D'Azoglio bu görüşün izahını verir: 《İtalya'yı yarattık, şimdi İtalyanları yaratmalıyız!》 Devleti milletten öne alanların görüşlerini ispatlamak bakımından misalleri de eksik değildir. Devlet olmadan İsviçre milletinin düşünülemeyeceğini söylerler. Onlara göre Portekizlilerle İspanyolların ayrı millet sayılmalarının tek dayanağı devlettir. Kuzey Amerika'da iki ayrı devlet kurulmasaydı; Birleşik Amerika ve Kanada milletleri meydana gelmezdi. Çünkü Amerikalılarla Kanadalıların diğer vasıfları yönünden hiçbir farkları yoktur. Pakistan devleti kurulmadan önce, Pakistan milletinden bahseden var mıydı? Milletin, devletten önce var olduğunu öne sürenlerin delilleri daha çoktur: 1918 yılına kadar bir Çek devleti yoktu, ama bir Çek milleti vardı. Sırplar, Bulgarlar, Yunanlılar, Arnavutlar, Finler, Hintliler ve daha birçokları, asırlar boyunca devletsiz yaşadılar. Fakat millî varlıklarını korumasını, yabancı hâkimiyeti altında bile millet olarak kalmasını bildiler. Bismark'tan önce bir Alman ruhu ve Alman milleti vardı. Yahudiler, 2500 yıl devlet kuramadılar, bölük pörçük yaşadılar. Yine de bir millettiler. ( ... ) Millet devleti değil, devlet milleti meydana getirirmiş? Peki, İsrail devletini kim meydana çıkardı? Görüşlerin hangisi doğru? Münakaşayı uzatmadan ikisinin de doğru taraflarını alıp şöyle bir sonuca varabiliriz: Devlet birliği, kavimlerin teşekkül etmesi için gerekli şartlardan biridir. Fakat, kavimlerin gelişerek millet olarak belirrnelerinde 'devlet birliği' daima aranamaz. Devlet demek, herşeyden önce, belli bir hukuk nizamı demektir. Aynı nizam içinde yaşayan fertler, kabile hayatının alışkanlıklarını bırakacak, yeni nizamın icaplarına uyacaklardır. Farklı örf ve âdetler hukukun zorlaması ile uzlaşacak, kabile ayrılıkları kavim içinde eriyecektir. Kavim bir kere teşekkülünü tamamladıktan sonra, devletin dağılması, milletin de dağılması sonucunu vermez.

A British Lord named Acton once said that power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

THE plan of this History, as is indicated on the title-page, was conceived and mapped out by the late Lord Acton.

Lord Acton's famous dictum "All power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

lord Acton ya nos advirtió en 1887 de que «el poder corrompe y el poder absoluto corrompe absolutamente».

While Lord Acton was correct in claiming that “Absolute power corrupts absolutely” (Lord Acton), the reverse is also true. Absolute impotence corrupts absolutely. When we feel that our lives count for little; when our apathy leads to stagnation in a form of work which produces only a paycheck and an emptiness in the soul; when we are surrounded by governments and corporations whose power far exceeds anything of which we are capable; and when we find ourselves lost in a sea of “faceless Others” (W.H. Auden) we cannot connect with, impact, or reach out to, first impotence and then anger and rage, seem to be the result.

Lord Acton once say? Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Murder?” Impossible. Acton was a lord and Humber would never do anything so lower-class as allow himself to be murdered! The very idea was anathema to a butler.

But if the thing is criminal, if, for instance, it is a license to commit adultery, the person who authorises the act shares the guilt of the person who commits it.

And the biggest software problem of all was an idea humanist computer scientist Joseph Weizenbaum had treated skeptically back in 1974: “One would have to be astonished,” he wrote, “if Lord Acton’s observation that power corrupts were not to apply in an environment in which omnipotence is so easily achievable. It does apply. And the corruption evoked by the computer programmer’s omnipotence manifests itself in a form that is instructive in a domain far larger than the immediate environment of the computer.” Meaning? “The compulsive programmer is convinced that life is nothing but a program running on an enormous computer, and that therefore every aspect of life can ultimately be explained in programming terms.

Lord Acton, Philip Rieff and Nicholas Wolterstorff

Absolute power not only corrupts absolutely, as attested to by Lord Acton, but brings with it an intolerable sense of possession over other people and, ultimately, over place.

The full quote, written by British historian Lord Acton in 1887, goes, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.